Amazing Spider-Man #30 (Legacy #924): Spider-Man and the Amazing Technicolor Tentacles *
(Because the fans demanded it **, my banner image is once again a picture of the issue taken with Puddin’.)
The end of the “Doc Ock gets revenge on Norman” story. Will Norman revert to his evil ways thanks to the Goblin serum Ock injected into him? Will Spidey be able to defeat Ock and his new Ocktoids with the help of the (newly painted) original tentacles? Will Doc Ock get his revenge on Norman? Will Spider-Man keep the old tentacles or were they only for this story (and an optional suit available in the upcoming PS5 game)? Will this story undo the improvements it did last issue and bring back discussions of Kamala Khan, forcing them into a conversation where they don’t belong? Let’s see!
(Did the old tentacles go through the washer? Where’s the new paint-job?)
CREDITS
Writer: Zeb Wells
Penciler: Ed McGuinness
Inkers: Mark Farmer, Cliff Rathburn, & Ed McGuinness
Colorists: Marcio Menyz
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Variant Cover Artists: DIDN’T I DELETE THIS LINE FROM THE PREVIOUS REVIEW? I DON’T CARE ABOUT THESE
This review is late for a good reason – it has been a very crazy week for me. As as some of you may have heard (on Facebook and Discord), my province had a massive rainstorm last Friday (the amount of rainfall on that day was equal to the amount we normally get in 3 months). The first floor of my building was flooded (luckily I live on the second floor), along with the parking lot. I foolishly went to the car to move it thinking this was just an inconvenience, and ended up trapped in the car while it was filling with water. For 5 minutes I thought “this might be it” but luckily 2 neighbors whom I had never talked to before heard me knocking on the window and got me out. *** Anyway, crazy things can happen when you don’t expect it, so enjoy every day.
So I’ve spent most of this week calling insurance companies, car rental companies, towing companies, and being interviewed by the media (I was on CBC!). So it’s been a week. Hopefully next time I won’t have any personal stuff to include here.
PREVIOUSLY IN AMAZING SPIDER-MAN …
Jonah rescued Spider-Man from Doc Ock (with the help of Ock’s old tentacles). Ock tormented Norman to force him to say that he was the one who was shamed. Spidey realized that the old tentacles wanted to attach themselves to his spinal cord (ew!) to show him where Ock’s hideout is (Why couldn’t the tentacles just go there on their own and Spidey follow them? Never mind). Meanwhile Rek-Rap showed up for no reason other than to remind the readers that he exists. Ock was sure that Norman was only pretending to be good and didn’t believe that it was genuine. Peter decided to let the old tentacles attach themselves to his spinal cord. Ock decided that if Norman had truly become good then he’d take that from him. Spidey did some upgrades on the old tentacles, and, knowing that every second counted, took the time to paint them red. Ock injected Norman with a vial of the Goblin formula.
SUMMARY
Otto gloats after injecting Norman with the Goblin serum, confident that it will turn him back into his evil self.
(Ock’s favorite character in all of Star Wars is the Emperor.)
But wait … Norman was just faking! He’s still his good self, as he’s taken so much of the serum over the years that he’s practically immune to it now. But Norman makes one mistake – he calls Ock a “buffoon”, and like calling Marty in Back to the Future a “chicken”, that’s one thing you do not do!
(Accurate depiction of Doc Ock reacting to Norman calling him a buffoon.)
Meanwhile Spider-Man, with Doc Ock’s old tentacles attached to his spine prepare to go find Norman. The tentacles are already affecting Spidey, making him call Jonah a “dolt” (hey, maybe they’re not all bad).
(Zells is determined in this issue to bring “dolt” back. And I am here for it.)
Doc Ock reveals that he planned to steal all of Norman’s evil schemes, but now he’s realized that Norman is truly good and therefore outsmarted him. So the only logical thing to do is kill Norman.
(I love how Ock turns on a dime here and immediately decides to just kill Norman once he realizes that turning him evil is not an option.)
Enter … the Superior Spider-Man! (Wait, that name’s already taken? Doesn’t ring a bell to me) Acting very “Doc Ock-ish”, Spidey orders Ock to put Norman down, and the new Ocktoid tentacles listen to Spidey! Ock doesn’t understand why until he recognizes Spidey’s tone and word-usage, and realize that Spider-Man has committed the ultimate sin:
(This is a clear violation of The Bro Code.)
We get a few pages of Spidey and Doc Ock trying to “out-Octopus” each other (which we now know is a thing that people do). Spidey even uses Ock’s old catch-phrase: “superior”. And we get a pretty funny “dolt-off”.
(No pithy comment here – these pages are awesome.)
Ock wraps his tentacles around Spider-Man and proceeds to shove him towards “a hyper-voltage coil” (no supervillain lair should be without one). He disconnects himself from his Ocktoids so he isn’t damaged by the coil. The old tentacles try to detach themselves from Spider-Man so he can save himself (not sure how, since Spidey is currently being crushed by the Ocktoid tentacles). But by removing his tentacles from himself, Ock has left himself open to the left-hand of Osborn!
(It’s the eye of the tiger, it’s the thrill of the fight, rising up to the challenge of our rival …)
Spidey uses his tentacles to separate all the Ocktoids, and almost chokes Ock to death, but his conscience -er I mean Norman- reminds him that he’s a good guy. The old tentacles don’t want to detach from Spidey, but he convinces them to, telling him that they’ll always be friends.
(Why did I include this GIF? Now I’m going to cry. Stupid childhood memories!)
The Ocktoids flee with Doc Ock, and he gets away. And that’s it. The issue is over, and looks like it’s getting a pretty good review and grade and … what’s that? There’s two more pages left? Well, I’m sure they can’t diminish what’s been a pretty entertaining issue up until now and … oh … oh no.
(Please don’t make me read these last 2 pages. I’ve been enjoying this issue up until now.)
Somehow Norman and Peter make this entire Doc Ock story be a metaphor about Kamala Khan (and they even bring Rabin into it), trying to make us feel good about her needless “death” and her wacky antics while working at Oscorp (for trying to subtlety monitor “evil Norman”, she did a terrible job by outright mentioning his Goblin past to him).
(Zells, you had *one* job – don’t try to make this story about Kamala. You have failed this issue!)
And we even see that the old tentacles are staying with Jonah, and apparently Peter and Norman are now best friends?
INITIAL RESPONSE
As I was reading this I was surprisingly enjoying it. I thought “Am I going to give an overly positive review to this issue?” There was still the anthropomorphism of the old tentacles, which I really didn’t like in my last review, but there wasn’t a lot of that. And the Spidey/Doc Ock banter is really fun.
And then I got to the last 2 pages.
Oof.
WHAT I LIKED
The idea of Spidey with the old tentacles is a lot of fun. I still don’t understand why just wearing them would revert his personality back to the Superior Spider-Man, since technically that was Otto acting like that – Peter never acted like that. How would the old tentacles attaching themselves to Peter’s spinal cord affect his personality? Call me crazy but the brain is in your head, not your spinal cord. But who cares when it gives us stuff like this?
(“True authority and true leadership come from knowing who you are and not pretending to be anything else.” – Bob Iger)
I liked the Otto/Norman interplay. It makes sense that at this point Norman is basically immune to the Goblin formula, so this was a clever way to get one over on Ock. And I liked Ock changing his plan once he realized he couldn’t turn Norman evil again.
(Unfortunately for Doc Ock, Norman does not have this switch on his back.)
The Spidey/Ock fight was great, made even better by Ock being offended by Spidey talking and acting like him. They say that the best way to recognize the worst parts of yourself is to see them reflected back to you by someone else (at least I think they say that – if not then I just made that up). I like the idea of Ock realizing how ridiculous he must sound when he hears Spidey say “dolt” and (gasp) “superior”!
I appreciated that one of the benefits (according to Ock) of the Ocktoids – them being able to separate from him and each other – is what actually does him in here. Because he detaches them from himself to try to kill Spidey, he leaves himself completely defenseless to Norman punching him. Something a lot of writers forget is that without the tentacles, Otto is just a normal guy – one super-powered punch should be enough to knock him out.
(This panel should have been filled with “GWARBLE” sound effects.)
Once again, I liked McGuinness’ art. Not so much his depiction of Doc Ock, but it’s really good.
The “gwarble gwarble” sound effect is only seen 2 times in this issue. It’s like they got to this issue and realized “Ok, it’s kind of ridiculous to have the Ocktoids make this sound. Let’s dial it back a bit.”
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
Again, I don’t like McGuinness’ depiction of “pudgy-Ock”.
(“Spider-Man’s greatest foe … Humpty Dumpty: the man shaped like an egg!”)
The old tentacles are still being treated as sentient and acting like a stray puppy. It’s not as bad as it was in my last review, but it’s still here a couple of times.
While I was reading this issue I thought this section would be pretty short this time. And then I got to the last 2 pages, and Zells try to make this whole story about Kamala Khan and turn it into “a very special episode”. It just takes all of the goodwill I had for this issue and flushes it down the toilet.
The way Zells tries to retcon some Kamala content into this run is just heavy-handed and makes me feel almost as bad as I felt reading her “death” issue (and not because she died, but because of how badly it was done). Kamala gets about as much involvement in this run here in Norman’s coffee story than she did in her actual appearances in the previous ~20 issues.
And it doesn’t help that (SPOILER ALERT) Kamala literally comes back to life in another book that came out the same week as this issue.
(The lesson that Zells didn’t learn about not mentioning Kamala Khan in ASM ever again.)
WHAT THIS ISSUE MEANT OVERALL
This was a surprisingly good conclusion to this Spidey/Doc Ock/Norman story, with some unexpected hilarity with Spidey acting like SpOck.
I would recommend anyone reading this issue to stop before the last 2 pages, and they would probably think “This was a really good issue.”
But I asked Brad and he said “No – you have to review the ENTIRE book! You can’t pick and choose which pages to include! I still have your Crawlspace t-shirt here – I can make sure this never gets to you!” **** So I have to include all the pages when thinking about this issue, and those last 2 pages really hurts a lot of the good feelings I felt reading this issue.
GRADE
C+.
Before I read the last 2 pages, this likely would have been a B+, which surprised me going into this issue. But reading this issue was like we were speeding along the highway of enjoyment, and then those last 2 pages had the ASM-mobile run into a giant pothole of moroseness. *****
So I guess the lesson here is … this book is ok-to-pretty-good when it ignores all of the main things Zells wants to tell in this run – MJ, Black Cat, Rabin/Wayeb, Kamala’s death.
NEXT TIME, IN AN ALL-NEW ISSUE OF AMAZING SPIDER-MAN …
Hey, anyone remember Randy and Janice? How they were getting married? This book finally did. ******
(Is it just me or does it feel like Randy and Janice appeared more in the recent Deadly Neighborhood Spider-Man mini-series than the entire Zells run?)
I expect lots of wedding shenanigans, arguments between Tombstone and Robbie about who’s paying for the wedding, and members of The Syndicate (?) as Janice’s wedding party. Do we even know what religion Randy and Janice are? I would love it if they just do a civil ceremony at City Hall.
Also, it says that this issue “lays out the next year of Spider-Publishing”, so the sooner we can forget everything that happened in the previous year of ASM, the better. What’s that? MJ still has powers and is becoming a superhero?
FOOTNOTES
* Again, no title for this issue, so I provided my own.
** Ok, one person asked for this, and no one else mentioned it. So technically that’s a majority response.
*** This was my car on Saturday.
**** 
***** Ok, that analogy got away from me a bit.
****** I feel that I can no longer relate to Randy now that he’s getting married, and … what’s this? I’m being told to stop beating a dead horse and just leave it alone? Ok, fair enough.
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@Evan – Sorry, I’ve moved onto the annual.
@Hornacek — I was able to uncover a photograph of you taken just as you were freed from your car:
https://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2019/12/shawshank-redemption-prison-break-2.jpg
I hope I can make it to the next review.
I hope to see my commenters and reply to their questions.
I hope the next review is as great as it has been in my dreams.
I hope.
A comment is a good thing, maybe the best of things — and no good thing ever dies.
Comments are a dangerous thing. Comments can drive a man insane.
Oh good grief! 🙂
I’m the only innocent man in the Spider-Man Crawlspace comment section.
These comment sections are funny. First you hate ’em, then you get used to ’em. After long enough, you get so you depend on ’em.
CRAIG WAS HERE
Rumor has it Mark’s a real cold fish.
I have to remind myself that some reviews aren’t meant to be caged.
Yes, I think it’d be fair to say I liked Hornacek from the start.
@Dark Mark –
It’s like they say, you either get busy threading, or get busy dying.
For the love of Stan Lee – not another Shawshank allusion thread!
@hornacek — Jackpot certainly doesn’t have a hyphen, nor does “superhero,” so I don’t understand what kind of hyphen pun Marvel is trying to make here. I didn’t even notice that the Spider-man hyphen was missing. Usually I catch that, since it irks me so much. I guess I was distracted by the foregoing grammatical concern.
And just to be clear, I was definitely commending your use of the Back to the Future and Rocky references, so I hope I’m able to catch your future references, too, so to speak. I know that Mark will drop a BttF reference in there from time to time just to make sure I’m awake. Maybe you should work on some Shawshank Redemption references in there especially for him. I’ll start:
“Alexand-ree Doom-ass.”
@Evan Berry –
Thanks for your kind words. No problem sharing my interview. I wanted to mention it during this review since it was a significant thing that had just happened to me, but I didn’t want to monopolize the review by going on and on about it. But if the commenters want to, who am I to try to stop them?
I would be lying if I said that my future reviews would not contain references to other movies from my youth.
Don’t take Puddin’s reaction to the issue as her not liking it. She doesn’t like much of anything. Also, shout-out for your demand last time to continue to showcase Puddin’ as my banner image.
I almost added “There was no letters page” as a pro for this issue. Every time I read some letter from someone saying “I’m a relatively new reader” or “I’ve been reading since the 1970s” and they say that this run is great or “the best they’ve ever read”, I can’t help but hear Josh in my head from the original version of the ASM Classics podcast where they would read a letter from one of the old Lee/Ditko letters praising the issue, and Josh would say “Stan wrote that letter.” I’m not even sure if this Chi-Town letter writer actually exists.
It did make me laugh when I saw the first image of the MJ/Jackpot cover that mentioned she was a hyphenate, and yet they left the hyphen out of “SPIDER-MAN” at the top of the cover.
You’re right, “Mary Jane Watson-Parker” is a hyphenate, not a multi-hyphenate. I’d doubt that Marvel would to remind people that for a couple of decades MJ had a married name. Google defines a multi-hyphenate as “a person, especially a celebrity, with several professions or skills” so I assume they’re using this term because apart from being a celebrity and actress, she is now a superhero too.
@hornacek — I’m a bit late getting to your review, but I’m so glad I did. I found your story online, and I hope it’s okay to share it here: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2249120323595
I live in Charleston, SC, and once in 2015 it rained for several days straight, in a city that tends to flood downtown. It’s safe to say that you experienced once of my very own nightmares. I’m so glad that you (and Puddin’) are safe! Okay, on to my response to your review.
KITTY! Ahem, where was I? (Gee, I wonder who that one person you mentioned could be.)
Wow, a Back to the Future reference and a Rocky reference in the same review? That’s incredibly heavy.
I had the same reaction to the artwork — Doctor Octopus just doesn’t look right to me, but I loved how everything else looked. It looks like Puddin’ doesn’t really care for how Otto looks, either.
I’m sorry you had to review the last two pages. You know, I just thought of a potentially informative subsection to either your reviews or perhaps a separate column entirely: “Honest Negative Letters Published in the Letters Section.” Unfortunately, I suppose it would be a very limited series with even more limited content. To be honest, though, I would love it if Chi-Town were still sending letters in, but I know he’d rather spend his time far more constructively. Still, feel free to beat that dead horse as much as you want, Craig — It won’t feel a thing! And besides, we can’t let the people forget.
Incidentally, even though this is getting a bit off-topic, I noticed in the variant cover to #31 linked below regarding Mary Jane’s appearance as Jackpot that she’s referred to as “the classic multi-hyphenate.” Is that a reference to the name Watson-Parker? If so, why the “multi” hyphens? “Mary Jane” doesn’t have a hyphen.)
https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/mary-jane-s-first-outing-as-jackpot-in-amazing-spider-man-31-scores
@Dark Mark – I felt that the joke was on Ock but that he wasn’t the joke, if that makes sense. The way Spidey was acting was pure SpOck so for me the joke was mostly Ock reacting to seeing someone else acting like him.
Brad told me that I would have received more with the pay for this review if I had only taken up his offer of “flood insurance” when I signed the contract a few months ago. I thought “what are the chances my building and parking lot will ever flood?” Whoops.
Great review 2 for 2!
I found this issue to be quite funny. I love bad villains, but I can’t say that I particularly care for Ock being written as the joke, but the jokes were funny so I was able to get over it. I give this issue a B+.
I was following your flood follies on Facebook. I was saying a prayer for your safety and very much expecting you to want to switch issues since you were under water (and who could blame you?). What dedication! I hope BD takes note of this and includes a little extra in your pay check this month!
@Paul Penna – “returning the character to life doesn’t do anything to alter the substance of the issue where she died.”
I disagree. If you read the ASM issues in a vacuum you’re meant to be emotionally impacted by Kamala’s death, both as a reader and by how Peter is experiencing it.
But the fact that we’ve already been told that she was coming back to life makes all of that emotion meaningless. We know that she’s coming back, so why should we care that she died?
And what about Peter? He feels so guilty about her death, and not only is she coming back to life, but almost immediately. He’s still grieving, but she’s going to show up, meaning all of that guilt he felt meant nothing. She died, but it didn’t matter because she got brought back.
For example, it was a mistake to bring Aunt May back after she died in ASM #400, but at least that was done years (?) later, and Peter had adequate time to grieve and move on before she returned. And nobody saw that return coming.
To be clear, I did say Ms. Marvel’s fridging, not her death. Because you can bring the character back to life, but that doesn’t undo what you did to her. And the fact that Ms. Marvel is turning up in the book again, means that we’ll continue to reference how she died for the foreseeable future, and our characters will continue to be affected by it.
Yeah, Ms. Marvel coming back so quickly is somewhat comical, given the hype that was built up for a death in the Amazing Spider-Man by marketing, but returning the character to life doesn’t do anything to alter the substance of the issue where she died.
@Michael – The whole Kamala thing just feels like two different groups of writers didn’t know what the other ones were doing, and by the time they found out, it was too late to rewrite their stories so they just shoved Kamala in there where she didn’t belong or fit.
Here’s an analogy that no one probably has heard of (prove me wrong, please!). I watch the show Survivor, and with a large cast of players on each season there have always been a few players that just don’t matter – hey aren’t great on TV, they don’t matter to the overall story, they don’t make any strategic decisions. They call this a “purple edit”. Eventually these players will get voted off the show, and after weeks of never talking or barely appearing, they suddenly get a visibility spike in an episode where they are talking and doing stuff and being featured a lot. If you’ve been paying attention you know “this person is getting voted off in this episode”. And 9 times out of 10, that’s what happens.
Kamala felt like she had a purple edit in this run. She was there, we knew she was here, but just barely. Many issues would go and we wouldn’t see or hear from her, and when she did appear it was barely anything. And then issue #26 happens, with the cover telling us “someone dies”. And suddenly Kamala gets the entire first page of the issue. Even if you didn’t know the spoilers, it’s blatantly obvious at this point that Kamala is the one who’s going to die.
It was bad enough that they killed her the way they did, but to use her so poorly in this run, and then make her death so obvious at the end – just terrible planning and writing.
“Do we know this for sure?”
https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/mary-jane-s-first-outing-as-jackpot-in-amazing-spider-man-31-scores
“On sale next month, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #31 will be a special over-sized spectacular that sets up the next year of Zeb Wells and John Romita Jr.’s hit current run! Amidst this wealth of stories will be a dramatic wedding that could spell the end of Tombstone, Peter Parker and Kamala Khan’s reunion after her resurrection, and a special tale by writer Celeste Bronfman and artist Alba Glez that launches Mary Jane’s exciting new era as Jackpot! ”
“Depending on which rumor you believe, it wasn’t supposed to be Kamala that was killed by
Rabin but someone else, and that was changed late in the game. But it feels like her death was already planned well in advance, what with her resurrection and new book in time for The Marvels later this year.”
Yeah, Duggan has said he handed in his script for the Hellfire Gala in February, and that’s exactly when the rumors that someone would die in Amazing 26 started. Plus, Steve Foxe has said he started planning for Fall of X in late November. So clearly it was always Kamala who was supposed to be killed by Rabin.
But on the other hand, Jordan White has said that the X-Office didn’t become interested in claiming Kamala until after they saw the reaction to her being revealed as a mutant in the last episode of her TV issues. The last episode aired July 13 and Kamala’s first appearance in Spider-Man was in issue 7, on August 10th . So it seems like Wells introduced her into Spider-Man before the X-Office claimed her. Which raises the question of what he was planning to do with her. The whole thing is odd- there’s no reason Scott and Emma couldn’t have told Peter they were planning on resurrecting Kamala.
@Michael –
“It was annoying that Ock didn’t mention how Norman. killed his ex.”
It feels like most Doc Ock stories seem to choose to ignore this story, which is especially strange since it was a major even in the first ever Doc Ock/Norman story.
“Peter finds out she’s alive next issue.”
Do we know this for sure?
“I have to wonder what Wells was thinking with including Kamala in the series in the first place”
Depending on which rumor you believe, it wasn’t supposed to be Kamala that was killed by Rabin but someone else, and that was changed late in the game. But it feels like her death was already planned well in advance, what with her resurrection and new book in time for The Marvels later this year.
Considering how much involvement Zells had with the X-Men titles in this run (Dark Web, and the earlier X-crossover with the Hellfire Gala), you’d think he’d have some input in what’s going on in the X-books regarding Spider-Man characters (which I guess Kamala was?), or at the very least, that he’d know what was going to happen in them so he wouldn’t be caught by surprise with what he had them doing in ASM.
It was annoying that Ock didn’t mention how Norman. killed his ex.
@Paul Penna- no, we’re not going to have the fridging of Ms. Marvel hanging over the series for a while- Peter finds out she’s alive next issue.
I have to wonder what Wells was thinking with including Kamala in the series in the first place, since Jordan White seemed to indicate that she wasn’t added to Spider-Man’s cast for the purpose of killing her. At what point did Wells find out that she was moving over to the X-titles?Because he did absolutely nothing with her! Was Wells told that Kamala needed to be killed off after he started the Rabin storyline? Because killing her off in a story where she did nothing before the last chapter was weird. Ideally you’d either have her killed off in an X-book or, since Judas Traveller is a Spider-Man villain and one of the villains of Fall of X, you’d have him show up to take revenge on Osborn and wind up killing Kamala. I’ve never heard of a company making a big deal out of a death that only lasts two months!
@Paul Penna – “Agree with the review” – this is already my favorite comment.
“I do like the implication that a part of Doc Ock still exists in Peter’s mind, and this might lead to somekind of restoration of the Superior Spider-Man.”
I personally never had any interest in Superior SM, and found the idea offensive, so anything that is done to bring back that character is a waste of time (but I can understand that some people liked that character so they would like this).
“I think this story was laying the ground work for better things to come regarding Octavius.”
I was wondering if the Ocktoids were going to be gotten rid of at the end of this story, and Doc Ock would revert back to his default status with his original tentacles. But it looks like the Ocktoids are here to stay … for now.
“The stuff relating to Ms. Marvel was crap. I get they need to make her death relevant to this book, because it just featured so heavily in the previous storyline, and it would’ve been weird not to reference it. However, it failed on every level. Everything Norman says rings false because we never got to see him have that working relationship with Kamala. So, using her death to motivate the characters doesn’t work. And it wouldn’t have mattered if it had worked, because that’s what fridging is all about, using a female character’s death to benefit the character development of male characters. It all feels so icky and gross.”
Agree with all of this, plus she is literally already alive again. What’s the point of having Peter and Norman grieve her loss if they barely had any time to miss her before she magically returns?
“it’s just unfortunate that we’re going to have the fridging of Ms. Marvel hanging over for the series for a while, and there really isn’t any escaping that.”
It would make me literally laugh if we had Peter next issue find out that Kamala is alive again and he thinks “Oh, well I guess I don’t need to feel bad anymore.”
“If not for that, I think I would’ve enjoyed reading this.” That was my opinion too.
I mostly enjoyed this issue. Agree with the review, I’m still not a fan of the tentacles behaving the way they do, but I do like the implication that a part of Doc Ock still exists in Peter’s mind, and this might lead to somekind of restoration of the Superior Spider-Man.
Norman already had the serum in his blood, glad they hadn’t forgotten that, the continuity was dead on.
The fight was good, although ultimately not much happened. Ock failed, and then escaped. But I think this story was laying the ground work for better things to come regarding Octavius.
The stuff relating to Ms. Marvel was crap. I get they need to make her death relevant to this book, because it just featured so heavily in the previous storyline, and it would’ve been weird not to reference it. However, it failed on every level. Everything Norman says rings false because we never got to see him have that working relationship with Kamala. So, using her death to motivate the characters doesn’t work. And it wouldn’t have mattered if it had worked, because that’s what fridging is all about, using a female character’s death to benefit the character development of male characters. It all feels so icky and gross.
So, ultimately I’d say this was a good story, it’s just unfortunate that we’re going to have the fridging of Ms. Marvel hanging over for the series for a while, and there really isn’t any escaping that. If not for that, I think I would’ve enjoyed reading this.